After a very successful World Cup tournament, Vladimir Malakhov managed to keep his top form this weekend. The 29-year-old physicist from Russia won the European Rapid Championship with 11.5/13, beating big favourites such as Gashimov, Ivanchuk and Shirov.
Update: games added.The 9th European Rapid Championship took place December 19 & 20 in Warsaw, Poland. It was open to all players representing one of the ECU federations (FIDE Zones 1.1 to 1.9).It was sponsored by Amplico Life S.A. and organized by the Polish Chess Federation, the Torwar Sports Centre and the Polonia Warsaw Chess Club under the patronage of the City Office of Warsaw, the Marshal Office of the Mazovian Voivodeship and the Central District of Warsaw. Venue was the Torwar Show Hall, which is primarily used for music concerts, ice hockey and other indoor sports. It is the home of the hockey team UHKS Mazowsze. Some of the biggest popstars including Placebo, Pearl Jam, Iron Maiden, Depeche Mode, R.E.M., Simply Red, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, KoRn, The Cure, Rihanna, Mark Knopfler and Alicia Keys have performed here as well.
The venue also hosted the 2007 European Figure Skating Championships | Photo Beax, Wikipedia
The tournament was a 13-round Swiss. The rate of play was 15 minutes plus 10 seconds increment per move. Eight rounds were played on Saturday; five on Sunday. The first prize of € 4,000 went to Vladimir Malakhov who scored an amazing 11.5 out of 13. He won all of his games on Saturday which included important victories with Black against Ivanchuk in round 7 and with White against Gashimov in round 8. On Sunday Malakhov drew with Dreev, Bartel, Movsesian and he defeated Krasenkow and Shirov (in the last round, with Black) to become the deserved winner in Warsaw.The silver medal went to Vassily Ivanchuk, who only lost to Malakhov. Radoslaw Wojtaszek took bronze after tiebreaks, finishing on 10.5/13 together with Alexei Dreev, Daniel Fridman and Sergei Movsesian.
Update: Below you'll find all games of the winner; the complete game file (PGN) can be downloaded below.All 13 games of Malakhov
Game viewer by ChessTempoEuropean Rapid Ch 2009 | Final Standings (top 30)
The playing hall of the European Rapid Championship...
...and another one but now with a fisheye lens
A tournament for young & old
L-R Anna Muzychuk - best woman; Vladimir Malakhov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Radoslaw Wojtaszek - medal winners; Lukasz Kalinowski - president of Amplico Life (main sponsor)
Vladimir Malakhov clinches gold in Warsaw
Photos by Piotr Gilarski
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